When you were 15 ...

This is a discussion on When you were 15 ... within the A Brief History of Cprogramming.com forums, part of the Community Boards category; Originally posted by face_master
When you were 15 (like me) what did you want to become when you grew up ...

"Be formless, shapeless, like water... You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot... Now water can flow, or it can crash, be water my friend."
-Bruce Lee

At 15, I was totally undecided. I had assumed, after the rapid advances in space in the late 60's that by the time I was ready to be welcomed by the work market, that the jobs available would be exciting off-world adventures in space. Humph!

I got nagged by my mother into following my glowing chemistry results into a career of mixing smelly things together to produce even smellier ones. Somehow I discovered geochemistry was much less smelly, and Earth Sciences beckoned.

After two years of geology, with the help of a pale°ntology lecturer named Pip Gurr, I discovered computers, (or at least the late '70's ICL mainframe the uni had), and did not look back until many years later.

Now I am a professional software engineer, and grind out a living doing something I no longer love, but am relatively good at.

...

So, at 15, go for a broad, general education and pick a course with knowledge when you are ready to.

When I was 15 I wanted to be a news anchor. I think that was my focus at the time, I was a part of the daily newscast at my school and was particularly fond of the limelight. Then about a year later I was introduced to programming and my focus shifted slightly.

I allways wanted to play in the NBA. Unfortuantly I was never drafted (I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to bad for that ). then I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Mom wasn't to happy about it plus I was to tall. So I took the next best thing, become an engeneer. now that I am almost one, I found a new goal, air traffic control. What will it be next year, an astronaut

when i was 15 i wanted to be a palaeontologist or a photographer - studied biology and palaeontology at university and got into computers once i graduated ... i still take pictures though and dinosaur bones can send me into paroxysms of delight